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A few days ago, I made a little post about the horsemen, and ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
scrollgirl reminded me to do some research next time I post about things.
So here's some speculation, the Who's who in terms of the four horsemen of the Apocalypse:
( Revelation 6: )
The passage talks about four riders.
I believe that I once learned that rider number one symbolizes war, but it is also believed to be a symbol for "wrong" religions. Number two is civil war, or - if you believe number one to be false religion - just war.
Number three is famine, number four symbolizes not only death but pestilence as well.
The "they" in "They were given power over a fourth of the earth " could mean all of the riders, or just Death and Hades, because right before it says:"Its rider was named death, and Hades was following close behind him.". But it is rather likely that all four of them were meant.
The German translation of this passage is a bit different, but doesn't really shed light on whose meant with "They were given power." In the german translation it says :" They were given power to destroy a fourth of the earth by sword, famine, death and by the animals of earth." (it doesn't say beasts, even though there is a german word for it.)
The original would maybe clear that up, but hm, I'm right out of original copies of the bible. Bad luck.
However, Highlander wasn't the first to come up with Four Horsemen as four riders. It is a common believe, even though their roles are sometimes different, as pestilence and death are often mixed up. The famous picture by Albrecht Dürer from 1498 is just one example.
So even if the bible orginally described the horseriders in different roles, they could have become death, famine, war and plague later, because those were the things that the people were suffering from the most.
It is also noticable that Death in the bible isn't sitting on a white horse, but on a pale horse. A pale horse in german is a special color of horse, light brown almost beige horses with black manes.
If I recall correctly. Methos was shown on a white horse, implying that he was War or "False religions" rather than death.
This is especially noteworty because the horsemen in Highlander are shown on horses of four colors just like in the bible.
White (Methos)
Pale (I believe the english word is dun horse; Kronos)
Red (Caspian)
and Dark Brown (Silas)
the fourth one according to the bible should be black, but true balck horses are very rare. Most horses we call black are actually very dark brown, or they are only black one half of the year (Summer blacks, for which as I am sure a proper term exists in english as well)
This would make Caspian civil war (I have no trouble believing that) and Silas famine (which is the common believe in fandom anyway, as far as I know.)
Kronos would be the one who calls himself death, and given that the majority of fandom is under the illusion that Kronos was the leader of the horsemen, and poor innocent Methos just followed him out of some misbegotten crush (it was SO the other way around), Kronos as death makes a lot more sense to me.
( Now, why does Methos tell Duncan that he was death? )
No matter what they were, they still fascinate me. I don't know how often I've watched the episodes, and the thing I regret most about HL is that we didn't see more about the horsemen. They are by no way the only interesting thing about Highlander, but they are one of the reasons that make the show so special.
A thousand years. I just can't get over it.
I hate Cassandra though. Really hate her. Had I been on that white horse and seen her there with the healer, I'd have taken her head right away.
I have no idea what Methos saw in her, and there is no way she could have had the power to break up the horsemen.
scrollgirl reminded me to do some research next time I post about things.So here's some speculation, the Who's who in terms of the four horsemen of the Apocalypse:
( Revelation 6: )
The passage talks about four riders.
I believe that I once learned that rider number one symbolizes war, but it is also believed to be a symbol for "wrong" religions. Number two is civil war, or - if you believe number one to be false religion - just war.
Number three is famine, number four symbolizes not only death but pestilence as well.
The "they" in "They were given power over a fourth of the earth " could mean all of the riders, or just Death and Hades, because right before it says:"Its rider was named death, and Hades was following close behind him.". But it is rather likely that all four of them were meant.
The German translation of this passage is a bit different, but doesn't really shed light on whose meant with "They were given power." In the german translation it says :" They were given power to destroy a fourth of the earth by sword, famine, death and by the animals of earth." (it doesn't say beasts, even though there is a german word for it.)
The original would maybe clear that up, but hm, I'm right out of original copies of the bible. Bad luck.
However, Highlander wasn't the first to come up with Four Horsemen as four riders. It is a common believe, even though their roles are sometimes different, as pestilence and death are often mixed up. The famous picture by Albrecht Dürer from 1498 is just one example.
So even if the bible orginally described the horseriders in different roles, they could have become death, famine, war and plague later, because those were the things that the people were suffering from the most.
It is also noticable that Death in the bible isn't sitting on a white horse, but on a pale horse. A pale horse in german is a special color of horse, light brown almost beige horses with black manes.
If I recall correctly. Methos was shown on a white horse, implying that he was War or "False religions" rather than death.
This is especially noteworty because the horsemen in Highlander are shown on horses of four colors just like in the bible.
White (Methos)
Pale (I believe the english word is dun horse; Kronos)
Red (Caspian)
and Dark Brown (Silas)
the fourth one according to the bible should be black, but true balck horses are very rare. Most horses we call black are actually very dark brown, or they are only black one half of the year (Summer blacks, for which as I am sure a proper term exists in english as well)
This would make Caspian civil war (I have no trouble believing that) and Silas famine (which is the common believe in fandom anyway, as far as I know.)
Kronos would be the one who calls himself death, and given that the majority of fandom is under the illusion that Kronos was the leader of the horsemen, and poor innocent Methos just followed him out of some misbegotten crush (it was SO the other way around), Kronos as death makes a lot more sense to me.
( Now, why does Methos tell Duncan that he was death? )
No matter what they were, they still fascinate me. I don't know how often I've watched the episodes, and the thing I regret most about HL is that we didn't see more about the horsemen. They are by no way the only interesting thing about Highlander, but they are one of the reasons that make the show so special.
A thousand years. I just can't get over it.
I hate Cassandra though. Really hate her. Had I been on that white horse and seen her there with the healer, I'd have taken her head right away.
I have no idea what Methos saw in her, and there is no way she could have had the power to break up the horsemen.
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